Leveled Up Twice, a Brilliant Record

A flicker of triumphant glee had just flashed through the pirate's eyes when, in the next second, it froze into ghostly terror.

Because he saw it clearly.

Amid the billowing smoke, the young man's eyes had somehow turned an eerie crimson, with a black tomoe spinning wildly within each pupil.

Through Rochi's One-Tomoe Sharingan, the bullet that would have been fatal to an ordinary Marine moved as clearly as if in slow motion.

He merely tilted his head slightly to the left by less than five centimeters.

"Whoosh—"

The bullet grazed his cheek and blasted a deep crater into the wall behind him.

He... he dodged it?!

The pirate was so frightened that he could no longer hold his gun. It fell to the ground with a clatter as his legs gave out, and he dropped to his knees. "Don't kill me... don't..."

Rochi slowly walked up to him and raised his fist, stained red with blood.

"Goodbye!"

Boom!

The third pirate's spine was shattered by a kick!

Just then, dense, chaotic footsteps sounded from outside the alley.

The gunshots and the thunderous crash of the collapsing wall had completely alerted the other pirates in town.

"He's over here! That Marine is in this alley!"

"Brothers, grab your weapons and kill him!"

Seven or eight burly pirates armed with swords and guns surged into the alley entrance like a tide, surrounding Rochi from all sides.

The rescued woman screamed in fright and shrank back into the corner.

But Rochi did not even turn his head.

Not only was he unafraid of being surrounded, but an extreme frenzy erupted in his crimson eyes, like a starving wolf spotting a flock of sheep.

"They came at just the right time. Saves me the trouble of hunting them down one by one."

Rochi shook the bits of flesh from his fist. With the system's Basic Hand-to-Hand Combat Mastery, every muscle in his body had adjusted into the perfect state for explosive force.

"Open fire! Kill him!"

The pirate leader roared madly.

"Bang, bang, bang, bang—!"

Several muskets fired at once, and the dense barrage sealed off every route of escape.

But Rochi pushed the Sharingan's dynamic vision to its limit!

He strolled through the rain of bullets as if taking a leisurely walk. Every sidestep and every duck precisely avoided fatal wounds.

For the ones he truly could not evade, he simply kicked a nearby pirate corpse into the air and used it as a human shield!

"What the hell kind of footwork is this?!"

The pirates collectively broke down. This was no Marine recruit—he was clearly an untargetable ghost!

"My turn."

During the gap while they reloaded, Rochi charged straight into the crowd of pirates like a tiger entering a flock of sheep.

It was a completely one-sided slaughter, with no suspense whatsoever.

He used neither blade nor gun. To Rochi, whose physical body had already surpassed human limits, every joint in his body was a terrifying killing weapon.

"Crack!" A rising knee smashed one pirate's breastbone.

"Splurt!" A hand strike precisely severed another pirate's throat.

The pirates' screams rose and fell in succession. Severed limbs and mangled flesh flew through the air, while blood thoroughly dyed the white walls on both sides of the street crimson.

The system's cold mechanical voice flooded Rochi's mind.

[Soldier-class pirate killed. Experience +10!]

[Soldier-class pirate killed. Experience +10!]

[Kill... Experience +10!]

It continued until Rochi twisted the pirate leader's neck around a full three hundred and sixty degrees like wringing a towel.

[Ding! Experience full! Congratulations, Host. You have leveled up twice in succession. Current level: 5!]

[Your physique has been slightly enhanced! Muscle density restructuring complete!]

[Current experience: 0/50. 50 experience points required to advance from Level 5 to Level 6!]

As a warm current flowed through his entire body, Rochi felt the faint exhaustion from the earlier battle vanish in an instant, replaced by explosive power even more surging and solid than before!

"Whew..."

Rochi slowly released his hand, and the pirate leader's corpse slid limply to the ground.

There had been more than thirty pirates in total.

Yet in just a few short minutes, Rochi had killed ten of them barehanded!

The surviving pirates had completely suffered mental breakdowns by then.

They threw away all their weapons, knelt in pools of blood with their heads in their hands, and wept bitterly as they frantically kowtowed.

"Devil! You're a devil!"

"Don't kill me! I surrender! I want to go to Impel Down! Send me to prison!"

These villains, who usually killed without batting an eye, now looked at the blood-soaked young man standing amid the corpses as if they were looking at the god of the underworld crawling out of the abyss.

Tap, tap, tap.

At that moment, the hurried clatter of Marine boots came from the other end of the street.

The Marine captain leading the group had finally arrived at the scene with dozens of panting ground troops.

The captain's face had been deathly pale. He had fully expected to see Rochi riddled with bullets, and had even told his men to prepare a body bag.

Yet when they rushed around the corner and clearly saw the scene before them, everyone froze in place as though they had been struck by a paralysis spell.

Their stomachs churned violently, and several recruits with weaker nerves even leaned against the walls and vomited wildly.

The chunks of flesh, severed limbs, and horrific splattered bloodstains across the walls testified to the incomparably brutal slaughter that had just taken place.

And at the center of this mound of corpses.

Rochi was shaking the blood from the back of his hand.

Hearing the Marines arrive, he slowly turned around.

On his handsome face, smeared with warm blood, was an immensely exhilarated smile that carried even a trace of sickening satisfaction!

"What a satisfying slaughter," Rochi murmured.

Looking at Rochi's eyes, black and white yet filled with endless deathly stillness, and the spine-chilling smile at the corner of his mouth.

The captain felt a chill run from his head to the soles of his feet, instantly piercing through his spine.

Even though he was a veteran who had spent ten years cutting down pirates in the East Blue, the hand gripping his sword was now trembling violently beyond his control.

"He killed so many people..."

"And in a hellish scene like this, he can still smile?!"

The captain swallowed hard and roared madly in the depths of his heart.

What kind of monster did we Marines recruit?!

With both the captain and first mate dead, the remaining pirates were no longer a threat. They were swiftly wiped out by the arriving Marines, and the town was completely cleared!

In this battle, Rochi alone killed thirteen people. His record was truly brilliant!